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In This Issue...
Articles
- A Theology of Humor by Cheryl Taylor
- Ministering With Humor by Stephanie Nance
- Christian Leaders Having Fun? by Pam Morton with Kathy Jingling
- The Health Benefits of Humor and Laughter by Dwenda Gjerdingen, MD, MS
Resources
Book Reviews
- Anatomy of an Illness by Norman Cousins
- The Purse-Driven Life by Anita Renfroe
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Book Review
Balancing Act
How Women Can Lose Their Roles and Find Their Callings
(InterVarsity Press, Downers Grove, Illinois, 180 pp., paperback)
You won’t find this book on the shelves of your local bookstore, but ordering Balancing Act may be time well spent. Mary Ellen Ashcroft, wife of an Anglican minister, professor, and author, speaks the questions many women ask when considering what they should do with their lives. The answer, she says, lies not in answering the “what,” but the “why.” Only when a woman can answer the “why” question with “because Jesus asks me to,” will she find fulfillment in life and ministry.
Ashcroft writes that women, as well as men, are simply called to be followers of Jesus. That call should result in an understanding of giftedness and a burning sense of what should be done with one’s life. Many women, Ashcroft argues, have a distorted sense of call, one that has been twisted by the unbiblical roles forced on women by society, and even the church, over the last century. If a woman is to find freedom to simply follow Jesus as a disciple, she must be willing to sit at the feet of Jesus, spend time finding out what she is called to do, and do it.
Ashcroft’s message is powerful and simple: women must allow themselves to follow the call of Jesus on their lives. Good historical, social, and biblical support will challenge women to rethink their idea of the “good Christian woman” in terms of discipleship. Younger women who struggle with understanding their call, or who wonder how that call could possibly be lived out when desires for marriage, home, and family come into play, may find freedom in the message that the only thing they must accomplish in this life is that which Jesus asks of them.
Her “tell-it-like-it-is” tone may feel hard hitting to some. For others, her strong warnings about the danger of women “losing themselves” in mothering will seem more like soap box preaching than a well-researched argument. Yet the message of her book is timeless; no matter our place in life, we are first and foremost called to be a disciple of Christ.
